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Fiona Banner

Fiona Banner (b. 1966) was born in Merseyside, North West England. She lives and works in London. Banner studied at Kingston University and completed her MA at Goldsmith College in 1993. Banner is part of the group known as YBA or Young British Artists and is a sculptor and conceptual artist. Her work centers on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. She juxtaposes the brutal and the sensual, performing a complete cycle of intimacy, attraction and alienation. In 1977, she started working under the title ‘The Vanity Press,’ and under this imprint has published books, objects and performances. She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2002. In 2012, she worked with David Kohn Architects to make the Roi des Belges, a one-bedroom building modeled after the boat that Joseph Conrad captained up the Congo in 1980. Here, Banner staged the world premiere performance of Orson Wells' unrealised film script, 'Heart of Darkness.' The room is now installed atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank.